The Final New Jersey Bear Hunting Numbers Are In

New Jersey’s final numbers from their black bear hunting season are in.

State officials ended up having another four days of hunting, after the initial six-day hunt that began on Dec. 7, when they determined harvest numbers were short of goals. The six regular days saw 472 bears killed.

The extended season that ran from Dec. 16 to 19 saw 38 more bears taken.

That hunt ended last Saturday. Sussex County bear hunters took the majority of the bears with 312 from that county alone. Other harvest numbers included Warren with 94 bears, Passaic with 35, Morris with 58.

Additionally, their website states black bear sightings have been confirmed in all 21 New Jersey counties. The harvest is way up from 2014, which saw 272 bears harvested. Their bear page says that the black bear population has been increasing since the 1980s and most human-bear conflicts in the state are bears getting into garbage.